The church was designed by Andrea Palladio and was finished in 1586 by Jacopo Bozzetto. Benedetto Palmio, the priest of the Company of Jesus, having come to Venice to preach in 1558 and having rescued a good many poor girls from the seductions of the world, took many of them into a house in the parish of S. Marziale. In 1561 he built another larger building for this use in the Giudecca with an annexed oratory, designed by Palladio, which was consecrated in 1588 to the Presntation of M. V. at the Temple.